11/16/09 8:02 PM EST

Report hits Geithner over AIG bailout

By EAMON JAVERS |

The government’s watchdog over the bank bailout program is criticizing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s handling of one of the most sensitive moments of last year’s financial meltdown, questioning decisions he made while heading up the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

The new report criticizes the New York Fed’s decision in the fall of 2008 to bail out insurance giant AIG by covering its clients’ losses, sending tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to overseas banks.

“The decision to acquire a controlling interest in one of the world’s most complex and most troubled corporations was done with almost no independent consideration of the terms of the transaction or the impact that those terms might have on the future of AIG,” reads the report, which is signed by special inspector general Neil Barofsky.

via Report hits Geithner over AIG bailout – Eamon Javers – POLITICO.com.